Old man Naruto
by electricbanjo
Summary: Naruto is not ageing gracefully anymore. He's bored. So why not go back in time and make things easier for himself as a kid? Unfortunately, the ninja back then are weaker than he remembers.
1. Chapter 1

Naruto was bored.

The problem with being an Uzumaki with such strong life force, and being constantly healed by a big ball of sentient chakra in your gut is that you inevitably outlive everyone you know.

Looking back, it certainly had been a good life. Yeah, sure, there were some rough years at the beginning, but saving the world, becoming Hokage and starting a family were all wonderful things that he managed to achieve - and that was all done by the time he was in his thirties. He'd retired from Hokage in his 60s - not so much because he couldn't do it any more, but because he thought he should pass the baton on to the next generation. If he'd waited till he wasn't capable anymore, well, he was in his 120s now and he'd still be waiting.

His retirement had been a content one at first. Naruto continued training - he always loved it, so why stop? Sure, he was easily the most powerful ninja in the world, but that's no reason to slack off.

It was about 3 years into retirement that Naruto had decided to take a leaf from his old man's book and delve into fuinjutsu. Always the slow learner in his academy days, he certainly couldn't grasp the concepts as quickly as his father had, but Naruto still had the advantage of time - and of course the ability to make shadow clones in order to multiply the usefulness of that time.

By the time he reached his 80s, he could confidently say that he was a fuinjutsu master. In his 90s, the shinobi alliance acknowledged him as the worlds foremost fuinjutsu expert. By 110, he'd well and truly taken the art beyond what the rest of the shinobi world thought possible.

By 111, he was tired of fuinjutsu.

The last 12 years had gone by slower and slower, which apparently wasn't the norm for getting older. And his health simply wasn't getting any worse.

Naruto needed something new in his life. Something to _DO_.

He paused in his reflections for a moment and started murmering to himself.

"Those early years in the academy were actually pretty rough. Maybe it would be possible to go back and make things easier for myself?"

Naruto reached into the drawers under his desk and rummaged through his fuinjutsu folders. He hadn't ever made any time travel jutsu or seals as yet, but it would just be an extension of the other space-time jutsu he already knew, right? Surely it wouldn't take him more than a couple of days.

* * *

Three years later, Naruto finally managed to complete the seal array he'd been working on. Sure, it was a lot longer than he'd hoped it would be, but actually having something to work toward was refreshing. Now all that was left was convincing Kuruma to power it for him.

 **"You sure you want to do this, kid?"**

Nevermind that Naruto was the oldest living man on the planet, he'd always be a kid to Kuruma.

"Yeah, yeah, it'll be fun ya'know? Weren't you complaining to me about being bored last week too?"

 **"I was, but finding something to keep you occupied and messing with the space time continuum are two different things. You don't want to jeopardise the peace you've achieved, do you?"**

"It'll be fine! Besides, the seal doesn't actually send me back in our own timeline, it just puts me in a different dimension that until the point of insertion, is exactly the same as this one."

 **"Wait, what? That makes no sense."**

"Tsk, just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it doesn't make sense. It'll be fine Kuruma. This timeline will remain exactly how we left it, but I'll get to help a young me in the other."

 **"Will it even actually be you that you're helping then?"**

"Shh, don't dwell on the metaphysics. Besides, whether the Naruto there is truly me or not, they will have had some crappy treatment and deserve our help."

 **"Humph. Well, I guess you're the boss. Let me know when I need to give you my chakra."**

"Starting now should be fine." Naruto replied with a smile

* * *

 **"So, did it work?"**

"I think so. I've brought us back to the valley of the end, and it's still undamaged by either of my fights with Sasuke here."

 **"I suppose that proves you've managed to go back in time, but did you get to the timeframe you wanted?"**

"Kuruma. My seals were _immaculate_. I have no doubt we're exactly when I wanted to be. Young me should have just turned 6."

Naruto peered into the distance, looking in the direction of Konoha. "Can you feel the chakras Kuruma? I can sense chakra signatures I've not felt in a long time. Iruka sensei is there. Kakashi is there. The old man Hokage is there."

 **"Hmph. I guess you're ok at fuinjutsu after all"**

"Look Kuruma, I know you aren't a fan of fuinjutu, but it was over 120 years ago that my old man used it on you, and we've gotten past it haven't we? Besides, I think it's time we paid a visit to some of our old teachers."

* * *

"Oi, Mizuki!"

Mizuki looked around. Across from the training ground he saw an old man waving at him.

Weird.

It wasn't anyone he recognised. And it wasn't like Mizuki himself was a particularly well known ninja. He was just a mediocre chuunin that had ended up in the academy after having one too many scares in the field. For this old man to know his name and be waving at him so cheerily was putting him on edge.

"Hello? How can I help you?" came his cautious reply.

The old man nonchalantly wandered toward him. The manner in which we walked was making Mizuki feel even less at ease. It wasn't the walk of a ninja being cautious of his surroundings.

No. It was more like the walk of a ninja so supremely confident that nothing can harm him that there's no need to be anything _but_ casual.

"Hi, yeah, I was just wondering if we could have a chat about how you treat your students."

Hmmm, had Mizuki somehow managed to anger an older relative of one of his students? That didn't make sense. He treated all his students well.

Weeelll, except Naruto, but that brat didn't have any relatives anyway.

"In particular, a boy named Naruto."

Crap.

Mizuki drew a kunai.

"No, no wait, I don't want to fight you or anything, I just want to talk!"

Mizuki carefully lowered the kunai again. "Ok, talk."

"I just want to make sure you treat him okay, and don't betray him to give village secrets to Orochimaru or anything."

Mizuki's jaw dropped. How the hell did this old man know he was still in contact with the traitor sannin?

Well, now the battle line had been drawn. If this guy knew he was considering betraying the village, then he had to die.

Mizuki charged with his kunai, ignoring the pleads to stop and just talk it out. Thankfully the old man wasn't even doing anything to defend himself...

...that is, until the very last second in which Mizuki found himself running face first into an elementally empowered rasengan.

* * *

 **"Well, that went well"** Kuruma snickered.

"Shaddup."

 **"There's not much left of his body."**

"Shaddup."

 **"Maybe that attack was a tad too powerful."**

"Oi, I only infused two elements into that rasengan, it was a weak attack."

 **"Weak by your standards, sure, but you gotta remember that you're the strongest ninja alive. You beat this guy up before just using shadow clones, remember."**

"Are other shinobi really this weak? That doesn't seem right."

 **"Well, what are you going to do now?"**

"Whadaya mean, what am I going to do?"

 **"You killed a 'loyal' leaf shinobi. That might not go down so well."**

"Crap. I suppose I should have just used shadow clones to beat him up a little."

 **"I told you so."**

"Oi!"

Naruto paused for a moment.

"Wait, I still could use shadow clones!"

 **"But you already killed him."**

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but I could just get a shadow clone to fill in for him."

 **"Would that even work? I know your clones can last a long time, but can you convince others that the clone is that traitor?"**

"Sure it would. I'll just use some fuinjutsu - oi, stop grumbling whenever I say that word - to bind some of Mizuki's blood to the clone and let it take on his chakra nature."

 **"Is that even possible?"**

"Do you not remember me figuring out how to do this? It was the one I decided not to publish because I though it might be too easily abused to replace people with spies."

 **"Yet it's ok if you do it, huh?"**

"Shut up, furball."

* * *

So, I got sick of my thesis for a bit and started writing a new story. I still want to get back to an explosive touch, but the ideas for this one were flowing tonight.


	2. Chapter 2

Kuruma was remaining suspiciously silent while Naruto applied the blood seal to his shadow clone, who was soon to be the new Mizuki. That said, it was helping Naruto's concentration to not have to put up with complaints about fuinjutsu.

All of a sudden, the respite was broken by immense laughter.

 **"Hahahaha I remember this seal now! It's the one you used to make a clone of Hinata a few years back!"**

"Hey! I was lonely, ok."

 **"Lonely, is that what they call it?"**

"Ok, I was horny too. Be quiet."

 **"Haha, I understand horny, but 12 Hinatas?"**

"So I wanted to try a few things. Sue me."

 **"Bet regaining the memories from those clones when you dispelled them was interesting."**

"Yeah, that was a bit unnerving I must admit, but anyway, shut up and let me work in peace."

A few more strokes with his sealing brush, and Naruto managed to complete his technique. The clone flared his chakra and began the quick transformation into Mizuki.

"Right, you know the deal - we can't let anyone know that you've replaced Mizuki, but at the same time, this means that you can look out for young me while he's at the academy."

"Got it, boss."

* * *

Iruka had a growing niggling doubt.

For the last couple of weeks, there seemed to be something different about his fellow teacher, Mizuki. It had started with Mizuki always calling him 'Iruka sensei.' Sure, that was normal when in front of the class, but not so much in staff meetings. That level of formality wasn't required or normal when the students weren't around.

Mizuki had also become... friendlier?

He was becoming noticeably nicer to all of the students, and Naruto in particular. He was even volunteering his own free time to help Naruto with extra training. Mizuki wasn't a bad teacher, but he'd never been one to really go above and beyond the call of duty. This diligence felt odd, and perhaps a bit unnerving.

To try and gain a handle on what was going on, Iruka had invited Mizuki to join him for a training session, under the pretense of practicing together what they would be teaching to the kids next week. And that's where Iruka was headed right now.

Iruka had come about 20 minutes early, but as he approached the training ground he could see Mizuki already going through some kata in the middle of the field. Mizuki paused in his kata to yell out a cheery "Hi, Iruka sensei!"

There it was again, calling him sensei when they were considered equals.

"Hi Mizuki, I thought we could go over some shuriken work, and basic dodging. Both of those are things I know that our students can improve on."

"Sure, you want to start with me throwing shuriken at you, or start with you throwing shuriken at me?"

"Um, actually, I was thinking of them as two separate activities, and using something less dangerous for dodging seen as it will be with academy students." Iruka thought for a moment before continuing. "But we're both chuunin, so let's start with me throwing some shuriken at you."

This would be a good way to test whether Mizuki's practical skills had changed at all along with his personality, Iruka mused. He quickly pulled out a few shuriken and started with some relatively casual throws.

Mizuki dodged with the bare minimum of movement - it was almost as if he didn't move at all.

Slightly perturbed, Iruka ramped up his throws, but Mizuki kept dodging with a practiced ease. Iruka started adding in throws to the most likely place to dodge to, but this barely had any effect other than to make Mizuki laugh.

What really blew Iruka's mind was when Mizuki casually grabbed some of the shuriken he'd thrown from mid air.

Actually, scratch that. What really blew Iruka's mind - literally - was when Mizuki took one of the casually caught shuriken, and casually tossed it back at Iruka with such speed and force that it went straight through his head.

...and through a couple of trees behind it too, but by that stage, the mind was already blown.

* * *

"Ok, you know what you gotta do?"

"Pretend to be Iruka, like you're pretending to be Mizuki."

Naruto-clone-Mizuki nodded his head at Naruto-clone-Iruka. "That's right. And whatever you do, don't tell the boss that this happened. He'd throw a fit if he realised we killed his favourite teacher."

"Oi, 'we?' It was you that killed him."

"You're a clone of me, so it's on you too."

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Just try not to casually murder any more of our childhood friends."


	3. Chapter 3

The walk to Suna was a long one, but Naruto was in no hurry so he was quite content to keep it as a walk.

 **"So why are we going to Suna again?"**

"I wanted to see Gaara again. And maybe help him out a little."

 **"At this point of the timeline he's still a psychopath, isn't he?"**

"Yeah, but I'll see if I can knock some sense into him earlier in the piece this time."

 **"Are you going to fix his seal to stop Shukaku from driving him crazy?"**

"Fix his seal? Who said it was broken? That just sounds like some assumption that people who don't understand fuinjutsu would jump to because they can't make sense of it themselves."

 **"Hmmph"**

"Yeah, yeah, I know you don't like - or understand - fuinjutsu, but to be fair, it's an easy mistake to make. Gaara is just unhinged because he took too long to find friendship or love. That and the multiple assassination attempts organised by his Dad."

 **"And the fact his sand brutally murdered those that attempted to kill him didn't contribute?"**

"Meh. The automatic sand defense was as much from his Mum as it was from Shukaku. We just need to give him a chance to have friends, and he'll turn out fine. I think we can get in before the assassination attempts start too - I seem to recall him saying the first one was when he was six."

* * *

Rasa wasn't having a good day.

He was becoming more and more frustrated with the fact that his youngest son didn't seem to be becoming the weapon he was meant to be. Perhaps the connection the boy had with his uncle was getting in the way. Perhaps there still wasn't enough fear from the rest of Suna. Either way, something had to be done.

But first, Rasa had to deal with the fact that an old man he didn't recognise had just walked into his office.

"How did you get in here?" Rasa asked angrily.

The old man looked around as though he was slightly confused by the question. "Um, I walked through the door" he replied, while pointing at said door.

"And no one tried to stop you?" Several members of Rasa's security staff were soon to get the sack, depending on the answer.

"Oh, yeah, a couple of people did, but I just put them under a simple genjutsu. They should wake up tomorrow. Actually, I might of used a little too much chakra, so it might take a couple of weeks, but hey, they should be fine!"

A Simple Genjutsu.

How the hell could Rasa's entire security staff be stopped by an old man with A Simple Genjutsu!

But that wasn't the only issue with security here.

"Ok, so you got past my guards, but that door should still only let you through if you supply a very specific chakra to it. The number of people that know how to apply that chakra can be counted on one hand."

"Oh that? I learned how to do that years ago. I didn't realise it was a big deal."

This. Old. Man. Had. Apparently. Had. Access. To. His. Office. For. Years.

This was easily the worst security threat Suna had had in decades. Rasa was really getting hacked off with this situation, but he figured he should check what the motives involved were.

"So what the hell are you doing here anyway?"

"Ahhh, I just wanted to come and make sure you aren't too harsh on your son. That, and also stop you from doing anything silly like trying to have him assassinated."

"How I manage my family, and how I manage MY VILLAGE is none of your damn business."

"Yeah, yeah, but it really is better for Gaara in the long run if you don't drive him crazy and make him think he's a monster that can only prove his existence by killing other people. It gives Jinchuuriki a bad name."

"How the hell do you know he's our jinchuuriki? That's an S rank secret!"

"Really? It's not a very well kept one then."

"You Impetuous fool!" Rasa drew upon his gold dust to attack the old man.

He certainly wasn't expecting the kunai raised against him in self defense to go straight through the wall of gold dust and straight through his heart. The wind chakra enhancing it definately gave it more piercing power than he was used to.

* * *

"Well, crap, I killed another one. I thought a kage would have been a bit stronger."

 **"He was a bit stronger. Just not strong enough for the host of the mightiest of the Bijuu."**

"Yeah, yeah, stop flattering yourself. Now I have to make another replacement clone, and this time they have to impersonate a kage."

 **"Meh, you've spent enough time as Hokage, and enough time with Gaara when he was Kazekage to know how to handle that role."**

"I suppose so. And Gaara won't have to deal with assassination attempts this time round."

 **"You should be able to prevent that silly sand invasion too."**

"Oh yeah, I can make sure that Orochimaru doesn't assassinate the Kazekage this time round."

 **"Yep, you already did that for him."**

"Screw you, furball."


	4. Chapter 4

**"I recognise that chakra in the distance. Heading toward Orochimaru now?"**

"Yeah, he was a real dick back in the day, but after the war he turned out alright. I just need to convince him to hurry up and be like that already."

 **"It took a few deaths and a body made of Hashirama's cells to get there though."**

"Yeah, I might see if I can convince him to just get a body from Akatsuki now."

 **"Which means getting the bastard to leave Akatsuki right?"**

"I'm not even sure he's in Akatsuki yet. I thought he joined to try get Itachi's eyes, and Itachi is still in Konoha."

Naruto paused at the top of a hill for a moment, looking toward where Orochimaru's current hidden base must lie. "Besides, I think of all the people in this time, we might actually understand each other the most."

 **"You're really comparing yourself to... that?"**

"Hey, he wants to live forever and learn all the jutsu, I kinda have done that."

Naruto thought for a moment.

"And at least I know Orochimaru should still be a he at this point."

* * *

"Hey Orochimaru, how's it hanging?"

Orochimaru looked up in surprise. Not only had someone managed to find his current secret lab, but they'd managed to sneak right in without alerting him. This was a problem.

"How did you get in here?"

"Why do people keep asking that? There's a door. You can walk through doors when they're open."

Hmmm, so this stranger must make a habit of surprising people in places he shouldn't be. Time to add another check to the problem column.

"Ok, you snuck in here and got past my guards, all without alerting me. But why are you here?"

"I just wanna chat ya'know? You want to live forever and learn all the jutsu in the world right?"

Orochimaru raised an eyebrow at the simple description of his goals. "And what's that to you?"

"I kinda know a thing or two about that. Plus I can help you find some bodies to inhabit that won't react badly to your chakra."

Ok, this was really disconcerting. The process of inhabiting another body as a means of extending his life was still only theoretical, and he hadn't even discussed it with any of his underlings. Best to treat this with caution, and play along for the time being.

"Well, then, lead the way."

* * *

The checks in Orochimaru's problem column were rapidly growing. This old man had just used the fourth Hokage's signature space-time jutsu to take them both into a column where there was a massive... statue? Tree with a face? Whatever it was, it was emanating some powerful chakra.

"So yeah, this is the remains of the Juubi or something. Madara summoned it after getting the rinnegan, and plans to cram all the bijuu chakras into it and use it to put the whole world in an eternal genjutsu."

"Wait, Madara survived? The Juubi? THE RINNEGAN? I need to know more!"

"Ahh, that's about all I remember. We just gotta make sure that... Oh, hi Obito."

Orochimaru looked behind the old man to see a man in an orange mask hesitating mid attack on hearing the name. Wasn't Obito the name of that brat Kakashi's old teammate that died?

The old man continued "There's no need to act on that control seal Madara put on you, I know you can be a good guy. Besides, if you do what he wants you'll both end up being betrayed by Zetsu anyway."

The masked ninja identified as Obito didn't take kindly to this. A strange sharingan came to life in his one shown eye.

Then everything hit the fan.

The old man pulled out the fourth's other signature technique, but wait, was that with wind chakra? Obito somehow phased through the first one, and used some form of space-time jutsu to appear next to Orochimaru. Unfortunately, neither of them had noticed the concealed clone coming down from the roof with a similarly enhanced rasengan in each hand.

The results were not pretty.

No amount of Hashirama cells would save Obito from this. And besides, the potency of the chakra in the attack caused his replacement limbs to just turn into branches anyway.

As for Orochimaru, well, he'd yet to truly develop any of his immortality jutsu - and now it was too late.

* * *

 **"Well, you successfully eliminated Konoha's two biggest enemies, even if they only knew about one of them."**

"Awww, but both of them were redeemable in our timeline. I wanted to get them both on our side."

 **"Psshh. Stop thinking sentimentally. You've saved Konoha a lot of headaches and possibly stopped the upcoming war."**

"Nah, Zetsu's still around somewhere. I suppose I should make clones of these two so they can sort him out at some point."

Naruto paused for a moment to reminisce. "At least the chuunin exams won't be so bad for young Naruto now."


	5. Chapter 5

Itachi stalked through the Uchiha compound.

The orders had come. The clan had to die. And while he knew that that was the case, he still felt terrible about doing it. Poor Sasuke, even though he was going to live, he shouldn't have to suffer through such a terrible thing.

Most of the clan had already fallen. All that remained were his immediate family - his mother, his father, and his beloved baby brother.

As he entered his family home, a tear trickled down his cheek. Fugaku and Mikoto, his parents, were standing there expectantly. They knew exactly what was happening. And then, to make things worse, he heard small footsteps behind him. Sasuke was right there, about to see him kill their parents.

Itachi began with his father. A quick shunshin behind him and he ran him through with his sword.

In that moment, Naruto-Itachi, Naruto-Mikoto, and Naruto-Sasuke all blinked as they absorbed the wave of memories from Naruto-Fugaku.

* * *

"What the hell! All four of us were clones?" 'Itachi' exclaimed.

"Not my fault that 'Iruka' made Mikoto and Fugaku suspicious with their treatment of Sasuke" 'Mikoto' responded.

"What about you, 'Sasuke', how did you get yourself into this?"

"Training accident with Iruka, I think half the class are clones now."

"Crap. Boss is going to be majorly pissed off" 'Mikoto' mused.

"At least he doesn't know how many clones there are in ANBU yet," 'Itachi' said. "He just wasn't quite good enough at pretending to be Mizuki, there was bound to be an investigation at some point."

"Where is boss anyway? I think he left the village pretty much straight after replacing Mizuki anyway."

"Well, I suspect he'll be on his way back shortly. And then there'll be trouble."

'Mikoto' thought for a moment. "Well, you were supposed to kill me anyway, good luck dealing with the boss."

'Itachi's' eyes widened. "Wait, stop you selfish bastard!"

'Mikoto simply smirked before grabbing a kunai and plunging it into her heart.

* * *

"Well, 'Sasuke', we've got ourselves into a fine pickle now. Thanks to your 'mother' the boss now knows that we're both clones too."

'Sasuke' grimaced. "And you get to run away and join Akatsuki now, while I have to face the music. It's not fair."


End file.
